Penny Garth Cafe

Hawes

Hawes and the Dales

Most popular activities in and around the town include walking, sightseeing,cycling, fishing AND CAMPING.

Alive with bustle and activity the town has a range of shops, craft and art galleries like the Ropemakers, a Woodturner, bespoke Joinery, Pottery as well as the award winning Dales Countryside and Railway Museum, a historic Mill which got featured on the BBC and the Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Centre which is also the birth home of the popular Wallace and Gromit Wensleydale cheese.

Hawes offers a wide range of accommodation and eating places for every taste, style and budget. It is the highest Market town in England and prides itself in having kept all businesses independent with no mayor chain stores anywhere. This town runs is own Community Post Office, Library, Petrol Station as well as a local Bus Service.

The place’s name is derived from the Old Norse word hals, meaning “neck” or “pass between mountains”.

The town was granted a charter to hold markets by King William III in 1699. It allowed for a weekly Tuesday market and two fairs a year. In 1887 an auction market was established in the town that held cattle sales fortnightly. In addition, five cattle fairs and three sheep fairs were held each year. Soon after, four cheese fairs spread over the year also became a regular event in the town.

The village once had a railway station that was the terminus of the Hawes branch of the Midland Railway and an end-on terminus of the line from Northallerton from its opening in 1878 to its closure in April 1954. British Railways kept the line to Garsdale Junction open for passengers until 1959.